Category: PAPIs’16

It is now well established that advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology have opened up new markets and new opportunities. So much so, that hearing early-stage investors preaching how AI will automate everything is not a surprise nor a far fetched idea anymore. Even though, investors are keen to admit the disruptive power of AI, they still have a harder time admitting the same when it comes to the venture capital industry itself. The idea of automating early-stage investments is slowly taking ground in the VC community, but a lot convincing still needs to be done. Thus said, and knowing the industry’s appetite for competition, what a better way than organizing a startup contest with the jury being an AI? That is why we created the AI Startup Battle, our best attempt to show the world that even VCs can be disrupted one advancement at a time.

The last edition of the AI Startup Battle took place last Wednesday (Oct. 12 2016) during PAPIs ‘16, the 3rd International Conference on Predictive Applications and APIs. Four startups competed on stage at the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center (MIT Campus) and an impartial AI, powered by PreSeries and Telefónica Open Future_ chose the winner without having humans influencing the outcome.

After being questioned live on-stage by the algorithm, the four startups were delivered a score from 0 to 100 representing their long-term likelihood of success. This edition’s winner with a total score of 89.24 is Joonko, which provides data-driven solutions to help companies improve the diversity and inclusion of their workforce. They will be offered an investment of up $50,000, an incredible place to work, access to mentors, business partners, a global network of talent as well as the opportunity to reach millions of customers.

The second place was for Cognii with a close score of 83.84, they are dedicated to improve the quality, affordability and scalability of education with the help of Artificial Intelligence. The third position went to Heartbeat Ai Technologies with a score of 70.73; they aim to design emotionally intelligent technologies and tools to help machines understand people’s feelings, needs and motivations. Finally the fourth position, was for Palatine Analytics with a score of 70.71; they help companies evaluate the current and future performance of their employees by using Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Analytics.

Following the event, Francisco J. Martin, President of PreSeries, and Cofounder and CEO of BigML said “Today was further testament to the increasing level of interest in a quantifiable, data-driven approach to evaluating early stage startups. We have been continuously improving the models that make PreSeries possible as evidenced by the variety of questions ranging from team experience and depth to prior investor interest, as well as intellectual property and current traction. Many traditional investors were skeptical when we started this journey, but we are now witnessing that a growing number of institutional investors are starting to see the merit in PreSeries’ approach. It’s safe to say our ‘crazy idea’ will move onward with an emboldened spirit”.

If you are somewhat familiar with the world of startups today, you have probably noticed how startup competitions keep popping up all around the place. From the biggest competition to the more modest, every early-stage venture can now find its way under the spotlight. But despite their growing number, startup contests are for the most part still relying on the same approach. Meaning, carefully selected companies pitching in front of carefully selected juries.

By design, a competition’s result will reflect its jury’s subjectivity. Even when decades of research in psychology and behavioral economics show us that putting human bias at the center of a selection process might not be the best solution. For lack of better alternatives, humans are believed to be the best and only option. Yet when dealing with predicting the success of a startup, a jury will often provide you with as many opinions as there are members of the jury. In the end, the result is a consensus of opinions based on five minute presentations and handful of slides.

Luckily, there is still hope for a more scientific approach that does not remove the fun out of the competition! Our solution? The AI Startup Battle.

The second edition of the Battle will be taking place on Oct. 12 as part of the PAPIs ’16 conference on predictive applications and APIs. Join us at the Microsoft N.E.R.D. center on the MIT campus where you’ll see live real-world & high-stakes AI judging startups.

The first edition that was previously held in Valencia in March 2016 where PreSeries’ impartial algorithm crowned Novelti, a company that uses online machine learning algorithms to turn IoT data streams into actionable intelligence. Novelti will be presenting on stage this week and kickstart the contest for this year’s participants.

Let’s have a quick look at the contenders:

Cognii: they’re developing a leading edge assessment technology to evaluate essay-type answers for online learning platforms. Their exclusive natural language processing technology can also give customized feedback, not just a score, to engage students in an active learning process and improving their knowledge retention. Cognii’s solution is offered through an API for all online learning platforms, including LMS (Learning Management System), MOOCs (Massive Online Open Course), and more.

Joonko: The first data-driven solution for workforce diversity. It integrates into companies’ SaaS platforms and analyzes real actions in real time. The data collected is unbiased – this way, organizations can ensure that all employees get an equal opportunity to succeed in a safe, non-judgmental way. Diversity is a business problem, not just an HR one.

Palatine Analytics: Palatine helps companies evaluate the current and future performance of their employees by using AI and Predictive Analytics. With Palatine, you can collect reliable data points by incentivizing employees through Palatine’s real-time AI-driven feedback system capturing accuracy of evaluations, recognizing strengths and weaknesses of employees, and using predictive analytics to accurately predict their future performance.

Heartbeat Ai Technologies: The mission of Heartbeat Ai is to design emotionally intelligent technologies and tools to help machines understand people’s feelings, needs and motivations, and ultimately improve our emotional wellbeing. How? Language uniquely enables the differentiation of fine-grained emotions. The approach first teaches machines to understand fine-grained emotions from language and context. Then, it builds a broader understanding of human needs, desires and motivations.

Telefónica Open Future_, Telefónica’s startup accelerator that helps the best entrepreneurs grow and build successful businesses, and PAPIs.io invite you to participate in the Artificial Intelligence Startup Battle of PAPIs ‘16, the 3rd International Conference on Predictive Applications and APIs, to be held in Boston on October 12 at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a track-record of improving the way we make decisions. So why not use it to decide which startups to invest in, and take advantage of all the startup data that is available? The AI Startup Battle, powered by PreSeries(a joint venture between BigMLand Telefónica Open Future_), is a unique experience you don’t want to miss, where you’ll witness real-world and high-stakes AI.

As an early stage startup, you will enjoy a great opportunity to secure seed investment, and get press coverage in one of the technology capitals of the world. On the other hand, attendees will discover disruptive innovation from the most promising startups in AI, as the winner will be chosen by an impartial algorithm that evaluates startups’ chances of success based on signals derived from decades of entrepreneurial undertakings.

Want to compete in the AI Startup Battle?

If you are a startup with applied AI and Machine Learning as a core component of your offering, then we’ll be happy to meet you! Submit your applicationand if you are selected, you’ll be able to pitch on stage, make connections at the conference, and get unique exposure among a highly distinguished audience.

Five Artificial Intelligence startups will be selected to present their projects on stage on October 12 at the closing of the PAPIs ‘16 conference. They will be automatically judged by an application that uses a Machine Learning algorithm to predict the probability of success of a startup, without human intervention.

The five startups selected to present will get a free exhibitor package at PAPIs worth $4,000 each.

The winner of the battle will be invited to Telefonica Open Future_’s acceleration program and will receive funding of up to $50,000. The winner will not only enjoy an incredible place to work but also access to mentors, business partners, a global network of talent as well as the opportunity to reach millions of Telefónica customers.

NOTE:During the acceleration program, part of the startup team should be working from one of the countries where Telefónica operates (i.e., Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Spain, United Kingdom, or Venezuela).

Disrupting early stage technology investments

It only seems like yesterday when Telefónica Open Future_ sponsored the World’s first AI Startup Battle last March in Valencia, when we first introduced PreSeries to the world. The winner of this world’s premiere AI Startup Battle was the Madrid based Novelti, who scored a competition high 86 points. The event was the warm-up round to the upcoming one in Boston. This time we will find out some of the most promising early stage startups in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in North America, Europe and the rest of the world.

As a bonus, the minds behind PreSeries will take the center stage to speak about their technology architecture, e.g., the supporting data, the training of the model, and its evaluation framework. It is a rare opportunity to find out what goes on behind the scenes in delivering this innovate real-life predictive application.

PAPIs ’16

The scenario of the AI Startup Battle could not be more innovative. The battle is part of PAPIs ’16, the 3rd International Conference on Predictive Applications and APIs. It is a community conference dedicated to real-world Machine Learning and related intelligent applications. Subject-matter experts and leading practitioners from around the world will fly to Boston to discuss new developments, opportunities and challenges in this rapidly evolving space. The conference features tutorials and talks for all levels of experience, and networking events to help you connect with speakers, exhibitors, and other attendees.

As PAPIs conference series makes its debut in the United States, there are also some changes including a pre-conference training day on October 10, 2016. Curriculum includes Operational Machine Learning with Open Source & Cloud Platforms, where participants will learn about the possibilities of Machine Learning, how to create predictive models from data, operationalize and evaluate them.